The traditional instruments of urban planning and community development cannot always meet the complex challenges that many communities face today. Humanity is becoming more concentrated, a permanently urban species. Culture is essential to ease frictions; public art is an effective catalyst for community health and urban vitality. There is untapped potential for public collaboration in art making – for artists who engage others to help shape the meaning and design of the work. The process links dissimilar people and fosters participation, rapport and ownership. It reveals unseen strengths within the community, focusing them in a lasting way at the core of the city, where they benefit cultural, social, educational and economic sectors over time. These projects explore and demonstrate a shared creativity, a collective efficacy - sometimes called co-creation. Studio William Cochran is interested in public art projects that utilize community engagement methods to leverage the imaginative power of the community. The value of this approach has moved beyond theory. One early prototype, Community Bridge, drew creative participation from across the nation and from some thirty other countries. It helped ignite development of the long-stalled park around it, with total new public and private development around the bridge now exceeding three hundred and fifty million dollars and growing. Equally important, the bridge helped shift attitudes and park development in a more community-friendly, mixed-use direction that has made it an economic engine for its city. The new park and neighborhood development supports downtown vitality and social, economic and cultural diversity. Leaders say well over a thousand new jobs will be generated, and these new jobs have been stimulated within walking distances of stressed neighborhoods where they are most needed. An estimated fifty thousand people a year visit Community Bridge, many on guided tours where they hear the stories of this unusual project that speaks wth the voices of people from all backgrounds. "Community Bridge has brought community focus to a declining industrial area of the town, created significant capital investment to areas surrounding project site, and helped tourism to revitalize in this area . . architectural, artistic and cultural development in this community increased while problems related to racial tension began declining. As a consequence, the concept of this initiative has been replicated by groups nationwide . . . Today the bridge has become a symbol for shared values all over the world [and has] been tremendously successful at uniting people, building a broad sense of ownership, creating synergies between sectors, redirecting public and private investments, and strengthening communities for change." –– Nil S. Navie, Arts in Peace Building and Community Development "As one who has dealt with art and its relationship to society since the 1960's, I have not experienced a more successful effort in dealing with issues of race, ethnicity and community participation." --- Floyd Coleman, Chair, Art Department, Howard University "Community Bridge is a powerful demonstration of the contributions of art to community health. The project helped inspire the founding of the Arts and Health Outreach Initaitive at Penn State, which documents the interrelationships between the arts and health, including holistic community health and well-being." --- Ermyn King, Coordinator, Arts & Health Outreach Initiative The Pennsylvania State University